Breakthrough DRI technology has a green solution even with low-grade iron ore

• Project NeoSmelt banking on DRI-ESF technology
• Opportunity for Australia to join global low-CO2 supply chain

Steel decarbonisation is a multilateral endeavour, happening at many different regions at the same time, while technological readiness happens to be the most important factor.

The steel industry is energy and carbon intensive, accounting for approximately 7% of global energy demand and approximately 7-9% of CO2 emissions. Global steel production predominantly uses the high emissions blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) route which relies on metallurgical coke as a reductant and energy source.

Low-grade ores

The alternate direct reduced iron – electric arc furnace (DRI-EAF) route may also be a lower-carbon emissions intensity route, particularly when utilising lower-carbon hydrogen in the process.

However, a key challenge for Australia is that Pilbara ores, due to their high level of impurities/gangue, are not directly suitable to the DRI-EAF route without costly beneficiation.

Australia is the world’s largest iron ore producer, with most of this being medium grade hematite/goethite ore exported from the Pilbara region and processed into steel through the BF-BOF route.

Project NeoSmelt

NeoSmelt is an initiative led by a consortium of BlueScope, BHP, Rio Tinto, Woodside Energy, and Mitsui Iron Ore Development, aimed at developing a groundbreaking low-emissions ironmaking pilot facility.

The Project will study the development of a pilot facility to investigate the feasibility of the novel DRI-ESF route to address the use of Pilbara ores in lower-carbon emissions steelmaking.

In this route, impurities are removed after the direct reduction step in an ESF which has greater flexibility to use lower grade Pilbara ores compared with an EAF. Hot metal produced from an ESF can be refined downstream in existing BOF infrastructure or an EAF to produce lower carbon-emissions steel.

The plant will demonstrate that Pilbara iron ores can be used in a DRI-electric smelting furnace (DRI-ESF) ironmaking route with the main advantage of lower emissions in steelmaking, compared to the CO2 emissions of the conventional blast furnace–basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) process that is still used for the majority of iron and steel production globally.

In addition to its reductant flexibility, the DRI plant will also be capable of processing medium-grade iron ore, adding strategic value, and will be equipped with an integrated carbon capture system, in line with potential long-term decarbonization strategies.

The DRI plant will adopt ENERGIRON DRI technology, jointly developed by Tenova and Danieli. Designed to produce up to 50,000 tonnes per year of DRI, the equipment will feature dual operational flexibility, capable of using either natural gas or hydrogen as a reducing agent.

This versatility will enable the project to potentially test multiple decarbonisation pathways and adapt to evolving lower-emissions energy availability and infrastructure.